Twitter is aiming to impose another restriction that appears to be designed to force people to pay for a Blue Twitter register. On Friday, a tweet from Twitter support announced that unverified users will have a daily limit on the number of direct messages they can send. While it doesn’t reveal how many direct messages you can send, the tweet urges people to sign up to be able to send more messages.
Also: Twitter rebranded to ‘X’ over the weekend
To justify this latest restriction, Twitter says the goal is to reduce spam in direct messages. Twitter users who adjust their settings to receive DMs may be subject to spam messages from spammers.
To address the spam problem, the company recently rolled out some new options. Instead of choosing to receive messages directly from people, you can Only allow messages from people you follow or only from verified users. Additionally, you can filter low-quality messages, meaning that DMs identified as spam are forwarded to a separate inbox.
IN another friday tweet, Twitter support says that the new options have resulted in a 70% reduction in Direct Message spam compared to last week. So if new options are helping fight spam, why limit the number of DMs unverified users can send?
Twitter views the fight against DM spam as an ongoing effort that may require several solutions. But many Twitter users see this latest restriction as just an attempt to encourage more Twitter Blue signups. Some point out that spammers can easily pay for a Blue subscription, which costs $8 a month or $84 a year for individuals. Limits to daily direct messages will also be ingrained in legitimate discussions and conversations between unverified users.
Also: Does Twitter pay to play now? The initial results of my blue tick test are
“Make some changes to reduce spam in DMs but verified accounts can still send spam? Why not make it generic if the real goal is to reduce direct messages,” one user tweeted. “If this is really about spam, let us whitelist people to message us without affecting their daily limit,” another said. “In our opinion, this is more of a sales funnel to get more verified users and switch to Blue, not to fight spam,” a third person tweeted.
In recent months, Twitter has kicked off other changes that appear to be aimed at combating certain abuses against the platform. However, many users see these as attempts to get more signups. In early July, owner Elon Musk revealed the rate cap will limit the number of tweets you can read per day. However, the limits for unverified users are much stricter than for Blue subscribers.
Also: Reddit is still a mess
I emailed Twitter’s press contact to ask when the new limits will go into effect and how many direct daily messages unverified users can send. instead of normal autoresponder is nothing but poop emoji, the company responded: “We’ll get back to you soon.” If so, we’ll update the story with any other details.
